This Just In: WHIPs Are the New MILFs

From Mrs. Robinson to “Stifler’s Mom,” Demi Moore to Brigitte Macron, sexy women of a certain age—particularly those in relationships with younger men—have long been slapped with vulgar labels like “MILF” and “cougar.” That is, until now. Today on the British daytime show This Morning, writer Bibi Lynch proffered a positive new suggestion: WHIP, or “women who are hot, intelligent, and in their prime.”

Perhaps it’s thanks to the conservative-dreaded “PC culture,” but degrading sexually desirable and self-possessed women who happen to be dating younger men is officially passé, or as Lynch decried it, rather “creepy.” “With ‘cougar,’ the men are prey,” Lynch, who is 51 and single, said. “WHIPs felt funnier, smarter, and sexier.”

This empowering rebrand will likely come as welcome news for legendary WHIPs like Madonna, Mariah Carey, Sam Taylor-Johnson, and Joan Collins, who have all been painted as predatory older women pouncing on helpless young man-candy. Shockingly, this is yet another of society’s deeply entrenched sexist double standards, as there is no popular male equivalent for MILF or cougar; “DILF” never quite took off (though, perhaps tellingly, “dadbod” did), and even “sugar daddy” feels quite congratulatory toward the moneyed male. Instead, society lauds aging men’s sexy salt-and-pepper hair, and crowns them silver foxes. (No offense to George Clooney.)

The death of the MILF and the rise of the WHIP is certainly well-timed for Brigitte Macron, perhaps the preeminent WHIP in the world right now. France’s 64-year-old First Lady has been repeatedly mocked and maligned for the 24-year age difference between her and 39-year-old President Emmanuel Macron (except by President Trump, who shamelessly commented on her lithe figure). For his part, President Macron has endured tabloid rumors that the marriage is a sham, a charge he has vehemently denied. “If I had been 20 years older than my wife, nobody would have thought for a single second that I couldn’t be legitimately together,” Macron has said. “It says a lot about the misogyny in France. . . There is a big problem with . . . how they see the place of a woman.”